This weekend I finished reading a book that I thoroughly enjoyed and related to. I found it in the recent releases section of the library and the title caught my eye. I didn't expect to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. I thought perhaps I'd get hopelessly lost in the zen jungle.
It's a fiction based on RL. The story of a man, tricked into driving a asian monk from New Jersey to North Dakota. The man believes himself to be a well balanced normal good hearted and moderately successful person. The monk teaches him of what more there is to life than material success and a trouble free existance. They form a friendship and become a permanent part of each others lives. (I won't get too specific so I don't ruin it if you care to read the book)
I've read and heard a lot of asian philosophy as well as western theology throughout my life. My own personal religious beliefs fall wide enough to include several established religions. What I read in this book doesn't add to that knowledge, but it did give me new definitions and possible conclussions to those thoughts. I'll briefly share two.
The first was a definition of enlightenment. The monk in the book is giving a catholic nun his definition of what enlightenment is. He first dismisses the word as too clunky and exclusive to be practical. Instead he states that the mind tries to make sense of the world. That in the struggle to figure out what we are here for and how to achieve it we have "adjustment" to our mindset when presented with new facts and opinions. He says rather then struggling your entire life in the hope of a great enlightenment that many of us have many small enlightenment throughout our lives. Perhaps some larger than others. The goal being to see the world as it really is, instead of how we relate to it from past experience.
This hit a button with me. I'm glad it did, I needed the reminder. Despite what or who may have happened to me in the past, it is wrong for me to carry those hurts and fears and project them onto new acquaintences. I will also miss out on many great things if all I'm looking for is reasons to be angry or fearing to move ahead because it's possible that I could get hurt.
The second idea passed along in this book is a little more straight forward. The man tells the monk he had a undiagnosable illness in years passed that had cleared up on it's own. The monk tells him that all illness is a result of the mind and it's emotions. He suggests that when our subconcious mind is stressed or repressed that our bodies manifest resulting sickness. The exception to that being when we take on the illnesses of others so that they do not have to bear them. (He quotes both Buddha and Jesus as examples of this)
I do believe that the mind has a major role in our health. I'm not sure I'm willing to say ALL sickness is rooted in the mind, but I would wager to guess that if we were happier as a whole society that we would see a corresponding drop in illness.
So, I'm interested to find out if you have thoughts about these two points.
